A typical enterprise network includes a number of high end servers that collectively provide multiple large and complex file systems. Each file system can include a large number of files of varying data size. A typical file system of the enterprise network can be characterized as being fully or partially occupied, or fully free (with only small number of files). In an operational environment, files are added, deleted and modified continuously by client computers of the enterprise network.
Enterprise networks routinely use one or more types of backup processes. An administrator of the network can manually select a backup process based on their respective knowledge of the structure of the file system, as well as the type of data that resides with the particular file system.
A file system backup refers to a process in which the files of the file system are backed up using the file system's application program interface (API). A raw image backup process, on the other hand, backs up and restores the underlying data blocks of the file system.